Children who start school without basic literacy skills are 3 – 4 times more likely to drop out of high school.

Uncommon Vocabulary

ELLIPSISM: (n) A sadness that you’ll never be able to know how history will turn out.

Inspirational Quotes

“The kinds of metaphorical language that we use to describe others say far more about us, and our attachment to our own frame of reference, than they do about the ‘other’.” Anne Fadiman

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato

“I’ve been wrong a million times, with turns and tests and simple signs, with lessons learned and options chosen. A truth is found I can’t unsee, my mind’s unblocked, my heart’s set free. Yes, I’ve been wrong a million times, but those tumbles taught me cleaner climbs, to heights I’d only dreamt before so I hope I’m wrong a million more.” Dallas Clayton

Early Literacy Update

The Sumner Houses contain 1,100 apartment units for low-income families in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. We are partnered with both of the child care centers serving the 125 children under 4 who live there. Thanks to supporters like you, all 125 children have received the award-winning books pictured above. Last week, our dedicated partner set up and distributed the above display of WordRebel books at a Family Literacy Workshop. In addition to building home libraries, she educated families about the importance of reading from birth, and subscribed them to receiveWordRebel‘s weekly tips to teach vocabulary.

When parents read aloud just 15 minutes a day, their children hear 1 million more wordsa year.

Uncommon Vocabulary

VELLICHOR: (n) The strange wistfulness of used book shops.

Inspirational Quotes

“How you look at it is pretty much how you’ll see it.” Rasheed Ogunlaru

“Most of my important lessons about life have come from recognizing how others from a different culture view things.” Edgar H. Schein

“All people share the same passions. They are merely manifest differently according to one’s culture and conditioning.” Yasou Kuwahara

Early Literacy Update

Words have power, and not only for the children we serve. This Columbus Day and every day, don’t blindly follow tradition or the words teachers have told you. While most text books taught us Columbus discovered America, he did not discover The United States of America. He did land in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic in 1492 and Venezuela in 1493. On both journeys, he was convinced he had landed in Asia. He disagreed with experts at the time, believing the journey from Spain to Japan was 2,300 miles instead of closer to 16,000. After illegally establishing slavery in the Caribbean, he was stripped of all titles and claims to the “Indies”. In 1506, he died still convinced he had discovered a shorter route to Asia. While Columbus never discovered North America, he did set in motion the Columbian Exchange, the global trade of people, plants, animals, diseases, and cultures that continues to affect nearly every society on the planet. Maybe this Columbus Day should celebrate the sharing of diverse cultures, and the power of words to change history.

WordRebel is partnered with six of twelve Sheltering Arms Early Childhood Centers serving 1,300 children throughout New York City. Our Lower East Side partner serves 45 children in the Jacob Riis Housing Projects on 10th St & Ave D. Today, all 45 children will receive a hardcover book (assortment shown right). Every week, parents will also receive strategies that make it easy to teach reading skills while walking along city sidewalks, riding the bus, eating dinner, etc.

Children who are read to at least 3x a week are twice as likely to score in the top 25% of their class.

Uncommon Vocabulary

CHRYSALISM: (n) The amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm.

Inspirational Quotes

“The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.” Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils.” Charlotte Bronte

“Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.” John Quincy Adams

Early Literacy Update

Our partner, The Children’s Aid Society, serves children living in the Drew Hamilton Housing Projects on 143rd and Frederick Douglass in Harlem. In addition to providing year round care for 80 children ages 2 – 4, they offer family support and parent workshops. Thanks to supporters like you, all 80 families have received hardcover books to build home libraries. Starting today, they receive weekly downloadable books and strategies to teach vocabulary and reading skills during daily routines.

Where parent involvement is low, student reading scores are 46 points below the national average. Where involvement is high, reading scores are 28 points above the national average – a gap of 74 points.

Uncommon Vocabulary

RUBATOSIS: (n) The unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat.

Inspirational Quotes

“I’d rather go naked than wear the coat the world has made for me.” Dorothy Allison

“Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” Toni Morrison

“So many people along the way, whatever it is you aspire to do, will tell you that it can’t be done. But all it takes is imagination. You dream. You plan. You reach. There will be obstacles. There will be doubters. There will be mistakes. But with hard work, with belief, with confidence and trust in yourself, there are no limits.” Michael Phelps

Early Literacy Update

Our South Bronx partner, H.E.L.P., is a transitional housing shelter dedicated to ending family homelessness. In addition to providing a safe place for 96 homeless children to live, HELP runs child care programs to lessen the trauma of poverty and homelessness. We are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to their family involvement and support component by providing books and literacy resources to the 30 children they serve under 5 years old.

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KENOPSIA: (n) The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.

Education Statistic

21% of American adults have level 1 reading skills, meaning they can locate a single piece of information in a short text if it matches the language in the question or directive. Only 3% of adults have level 5 reading skills, meaning they can make high-level inferences and contrast complex information within a dense text.

Inspirational Quotes

“Lately, I feel restless, like there is a great surprise in the world, waiting for me to find it.”Meera Lee

“Once you have flown, you will walk the Earth with your eyes skyward; for there you have been, there you long to return.” Leonardo DaVinci

“It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.” William Carlos Williams

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LACHESISM: The desire to be struck by disaster – to survive a plane crash, to lose everything in a fire, to plunge over a waterfall – to put a kink in the smooth arc of your life.

Education Statistic

70% of inmates in American prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level.

Inspirational Quotes

“We are getting older, and we are getting freer. And when you get the wisdom and the truth, then you get the freedom and you get the power, and then you look out. Look out.”Melissa Etheridge

“Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.” Mark Twain

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” Helen Keller

Early Literacy Update

Last week, we visited 40 daycares serving housing projects throughout Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx to distribute literacy resources and take book orders. Books have shipped! 30 daycare directors are currently distributing their chosen assortment of classic children’s books to every child they serve. At our 10 Bronx daycares, every family is now enrolling to receive 1 new book every month from like-minded nonprofit, Imagination Library. Finally, every family receives their new book with a free subscription to WordRebel‘s weekly email-text service, which makes daily literacy instruction effortless for hardworking families living below the poverty line.

SUBSCRIBE to stay inspired and informed. Receive the weekly word, quote, statistic and update straight to your inbox. Read on to see what you’ve missed!

ÉNOUEMENT: The bittersweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self.

Education Statistics

Of the 16 million children living in poverty in the U.S., 10 million do not own a single book.

Inspirational Quotes

“At every period of history, people have believed things that were just ridiculous, believed them so strongly that you risked ostracism or even violence by saying otherwise. If our own time were any different, that would be remarkable.” Paul Graham

“Everything you’re sure is right can be wrong in another place.” Barbara Kingsolver

“We can never give up longing and wishing. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.” George Eliot

Early Literacy Update

Our mission is not only to provide families with WordRebel books and resources. We also provide resources that make it effortless for families to take advantage of every free book available.

This week, 3,500 families are learning which local “Reach Out and Read” pediatricians provide books and literacy training at yearly check-ups.

At our Bronx daycares, 630 families are currently enrolling in “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.” Every single month, 630 families will be mailed one high quality, age-appropriate book directly to their homes.

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JOUSKA: A hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head.

Education Statistic

Only 58% of low-income children start school “ready” to learn (with the language processing skills essential to understanding grade-level material).

Inspirational Quotes

“When you’re unhappy, you get to pay a lot of attention to yourself. And you get to take yourself oh so very seriously. Your truly happy people, your people who truly like themselves, they don’t think about themselves very much.” Tom Robbins

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” Anne Frank

“Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won.” Ayn Rand

Early Literacy Update

We are excited to make 1 free book and 1 year of literacy instruction part of how 30 daycares welcome 2,000 families back after Labor Day. Plus..thanks to First Book and Molina Healthcare, all 50 daycares will receive 30 wellness-themed children’s books!

Want to make equal opportunity a reality for more children living in housing projects in NYC? Forward this post to 10 friends + Invite them to donate $15 (5 books) = Sponsor a book give-away at 1 of 20 remaining daycares.

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EXULANSIS: The tendency to give up trying to talk about an experience because people are unable to relate to it.

Education Statistic

37% of children begin preschool lacking the basic literacy skills they need to ever catch up, graduate, or succeed in an academic or professional field.

Inspirational Quotes

“I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.” Henry Fielding

“Every war is both won and lost…someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own.”Barbara Kingsolver

“Stay close to any sounds that make you glad you are alive.” Hafiz

Early Literacy Update

With the 2016-2017 year about to begin, we are excited to subscribe thousands of parents to our weekly text and email service.

The hardworking parents we serve have almost no extra time to read to their children. It is often difficult, if not impossible, for parents living in poverty to give their children the resources and experiences they need to have an equal opportunity to succeed. This is whyWordRebel‘s mission is not simply to donate books. We empower parents to use every available moment to teach vocabulary and reading skills.

Every parent wants the best for their child. Not every parent realizes that the best way a parent can prepare a child for college is to teach them 1,100 word before preschool. We are here to spread the word!

SUBSCRIBE to stay inspired and informed. Receive the weekly word, quote, statistic and update straight to your inbox. Read on to see what you’ve missed!